Spirit of America is the trademarked name used by Craig Breedlove

Craig Breedlove

Craig Breedlove is a five-time world land speed record holder. He was the first to reach , , and , using several turbojet-powered vehicles, all named Spirit of America.-Land vehicle speed records :...

 for his land speed record

Land speed record

The land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...

-setting vehicles.
The Spirit of America was the first of the modern record breaking jet-propelled cars, built with a narrow stream-lined fuselage, three wheel chassis, and most significantly turbojet engine

Jet engine

A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...

. Like most of the other competing vehicles the engine was ex-military, the first Spirit had a General Electric J47

General Electric J47

|-Specifications :-Nuclear-powered version – The X39:In the 1950s, interest in the development of nuclear-powered aircraft led GE to experiment with two nuclear-powered gas turbine designs, one based on the J47, and another new and much larger engine called the X211.The design based on the J47...

 engine from an F-86 Sabre

F-86 Sabre

The North American F-86 Sabre was a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as America's first swept wing fighter which could counter the similarly-winged Soviet MiG-15 in high speed dogfights over the skies of the Korean War...

 and was tested at Bonneville Salt Flats in 1962, where difficult handling resulted in failure.